Now THIS Is Summer!

Two days of sailing lessons down, four days of my sabbatical gone. Can we please slow it down a bit?!?!? It was a gorgeous day on the water and I have the sunburn to prove it.

According to the pros at the sailing center, today's conditions were superb. I'm sure they were but I found them pretty challenging. Everything happens all that much faster when the winds are gusting to 20 mph. Throw in the dead spots and shifting winds typical of Boston Harbor and things really get interesting.

Today's lesson was supposed to be on sailing off the mooring, getting on the mooring, man overboard drills and understanding the balance of the boat. We had a crew of three on our boat including our instructor. After rigging the sails, we nicely sailed off the mooring and through the mine field of other moored boats. Once out on the harbor, we decided to start where we left off yesterday and practice jibing. So we head on a run, and get set up to jibe. As I start pulling the boom across - BAM! - a huge gust of wind slams the main around and CRACK - a huge tangle of pulleys and lines comes flapping off the boom. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?!?!? Turns out we ripped the boom vang off the mast. Oops.

One of the other instructors came out on the launch with a replacement. He tied up along side and switched places with our instructor - she took over the launch while he repaired the boom vang. I had an interesting time keeping the boat on course while he was busy with that - my very first time handling the tiller and the main sheet at the same time. Happiness.

We finished the day practicing all our maneuvers. I learned a ton - including graduating from my knot ignorance of yesterday. I got to tie the bowline at the end of the day. I wonder if the boat will still be there in the morning. ;-)